Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

Another World: The first hour-long soap, and (for a few months in 1979) the only 90-minute soap. Still fondly remembered after a run of 35 years.

Search for Tomorrow: The longest-running soap until Guiding Light overtook it. Mary Stuart as Joanne was like a member of the family.

Passions: No middle ground with this one. People either loved or hated it. James Reilly let his imagination go with this one. NBC killed it last year and is now down to only one soap (Days of our Lives).

The Edge of Night: Got that title because it aired late in the afternoon. At first it used the cast of the Perry Mason radio show, playing the same characters under different names. Brought courtroom theatrics and crime to soapland. Memorable opening of a city going from day to night in a time-lapse shot. Though known as a CBS soap, it spent its last years on ABC.

Ryan's Hope: The fondly recalled ABC soap about the troubles of an Irish-American family in Boston. (Edit: actually New York) Got Kate Mulgrew her start.

Dark Shadows: The first and best "Gothic" soap. Who didn't fall under the spell of Barnabas?

Generations: First true attempt at a soap with an African-American cast.

Texas: NBC's dire ripoff of Dallas.

Capitol: CBS' attempt to bring D.C.-style politics and scandal to soaps. Revived the career of Western star Rory Calhoun.

Love is a Many Splendored Thing: Had nothing whatever to do with the Jennifer Jones movie.

The Secret Storm: Another soap with a well remembered opening (waves crashing against rocks). The travails of the Ames family enlivened the CBS lineup for years.

Hawkins Falls: Broadcast live from Chicago in the '50s, it first attempted to bring whimsical humor to soaps, but became more straightforward toward the end.

Young Dr. Malone, The Brighter Day: Remnants from radio.

Another Life: An attempt at a Christian soap, produced by Pat Robertson's CBN.

The Catlins: First made-for-cable soap, airing on TBS.

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

Without a doubt The Edge of Night was the best soap ever! Creator Irving Vendig (who also wrote Search for Tomorrow in its early years) was no stranger to creating suspenseful narrative. The original Mike Karr had portrayed the radio Perry Mason (also written by Vendig) for years. Because "Edge" aired on CBS at 4:30 it also had a heavy male audience. Suspense, murderous plots served with a light sauce of romance kept the show #1 in daytime for years. A nation mourned when Mike's wife Sara (Teal Ames) died. The CBS switchboard was so overwhelmed by phone calls that the next day, Mike (John Larkin) appeared at the end of the show with his "deceased" spouse where they both said she was alive and well and pursuing a movie career. This is not suburban legend, I was in college then and watched the show daily (along with many others) in the studio union.
John Larkin left the show but a new character Lt. Ed Gibson (played by Mary Martin's son Larry Hagman) and several other characters became the focus of the drama ... all friends and acquaintances of the Karr family. And Vendig's penchant for plotting became more fertile. Who can forget the great sequence where Ray MaDonall (now playing Dr. Joe on All My Children) as Phil Capice was duplicitly befriended by Casey Reno who had been hired by Scofield Kilbourne to frame Phil as a drug dealer because Kilbourne hated Phil's father-in-law Winston Grimsley who had him sent to prison for embezzlement years before? When Reno was exposed because Ed Gibson's blind sister recognized the voice of Reno's assistant Sam Haven who had blinded her in a murderous attack because she discovered her after-school job was actually running fixes for addicts instead of delivering books, Kilbourne hired an out-of-town hit man to kill Reno and then had plastic surgery performed on the killer so he looked like Phil Capice, arranged an accident for Phil so he could be kidnapped and the faux-Phil substituted ... the horror for Phil's wife Louise when she discovered she was living with an imposter ... Kilbourne murdering faux-Phil, framing Louise for the slaying and torturing her when she went on trial with phone calls telling her to keep her mouth shut and allowing the real Phil to briefly talk so she'd know he was alive but wouldn't be if she told the truth! Dudes, I'm not kidding, it's all true! Mike Karr returned now portrayed by Laurence Hugo (who'd been a rotten playboy on Search for Tomorrow earlier) to save the day.
Ironically at that point in Edge storyline NBC had cancelled what might actually have been the best soap ever for family-oriented drama and suspense From These Roots in which Ann Flood had been the series star. P&G, sponsors of From These Roots, knew they had a winning actress and put her on Edge of Night as Nancy Pollack, independent female reporter who was destined to become widower Mike Karr's romantic interest and future wife.
Up to the mid-60's on Edge you always knew who the killers and evil-doers were. Vendig left the show as head writer and several were tried before Edge acquired the most brilliant writer ever, Edgar-award winner Henry Slesar who not only brought in fascinating characters and families but was an absolute genius at creating murder mysteries which would take 6 months to a year tgo unravel.
Producer Erwin Nicholson and writer Henry Slesar brought us complex mysteries and off-the-wall characters who'll never be forgotten. The politically active Whitney family, the Hilliar family ... and who had been on the show since the Vendig days, the Marceaus - all utilized in terrific plots which kept the audience glued to the screen during airtime. The last super plotter, Raven Alexander who worked her way through most of the males on the show before marrying Sky Whitney.
P&G made an egregious error in dumping Slesar and taking on a new head writer in an attempt to capture a younger audience. Edge had declined in ratings as CBS kept moving it earlier, first 3:30 and finally 2:30, then wanted the time slot because As the World Turns was going to expand from half and hour to a full hour. ABC offered to pick up the show and air it at 4:00 which would have been ideal. Except many local ABC affiliates preferred to air syndicated shows at that time which was more lucrative for them. So many Edge fans found the show time-delayed a day for a 10:00 a.m. airing. Then some affiliates determined delaying the show was too much trouble and dropped it from their schedule. Alas, the show reached its conclusion over two decades ago. But those of us who loved it during that magnificent 28-year run will always consider it the best ever!

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

Thanks for that. The creator of Perry Mason, Erle Stanley Gardner, did not want his creation to come to TV in the form of a soap opera, so the character names were changed.
I heard that the city in the time-lapse shot in the "Edge" opening was Cincinnati, home of P&G.

I remember the days when the networks had full daytime schedules, each having at least half a dozen soaps and a few game shows. But affiliates wanted more local avails when more original syndicated shows became available. Also, the ratings for soaps have declined in recent years as their traditional audiences get older. So when NBC canceled "Another World" and then "Passions," it did not replace them with anything, giving the time to their affiliates, till only "Days" is left. By contrast, ABC has three soaps still going (and started the Soapnet cable channel), while CBS has four, as well as the only daytime game - "The Price is Right." I thought for certain that when Bob Barker retired, that show would end, but no, Drew Carey replaced him and it goes on.

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

Without a doubt The Edge of Night was the best soap ever! Creator Irving Vendig (who also wrote Search for Tomorrow in its early years) was no stranger to creating suspenseful narrative. The original Mike Karr had portrayed the radio Perry Mason (also written by Vendig) for years. Because "Edge" aired on CBS at 4:30 it also had a heavy male audience. Suspense, murderous plots served with a light sauce of romance kept the show #1 in daytime for years. A nation mourned when Mike's wife Sara (Teal Ames) died. The CBS switchboard was so overwhelmed by phone calls that the next day, Mike (John Larkin) appeared at the end of the show with his "deceased" spouse where they both said she was alive and well and pursuing a movie career. This is not suburban legend, I was in college then and watched the show daily (along with many others) in the studio union.
John Larkin left the show but a new character Lt. Ed Gibson (played by Mary Martin's son Larry Hagman) and several other characters became the focus of the drama ... all friends and acquaintances of the Karr family. And Vendig's penchant for plotting became more fertile. Who can forget the great sequence where Ray MaDonall (now playing Dr. Joe on All My Children) as Phil Capice was duplicitly befriended by Casey Reno who had been hired by Scofield Kilbourne to frame Phil as a drug dealer because Kilbourne hated Phil's father-in-law Winston Grimsley who had him sent to prison for embezzlement years before? When Reno was exposed because Ed Gibson's blind sister recognized the voice of Reno's assistant Sam Haven who had blinded her in a murderous attack because she discovered her after-school job was actually running fixes for addicts instead of delivering books, Kilbourne hired an out-of-town hit man to kill Reno and then had plastic surgery performed on the killer so he looked like Phil Capice, arranged an accident for Phil so he could be kidnapped and the faux-Phil substituted ... the horror for Phil's wife Louise when she discovered she was living with an imposter ... Kilbourne murdering faux-Phil, framing Louise for the slaying and torturing her when she went on trial with phone calls telling her to keep her mouth shut and allowing the real Phil to briefly talk so she'd know he was alive but wouldn't be if she told the truth! Dudes, I'm not kidding, it's all true! Mike Karr returned now portrayed by Laurence Hugo (who'd been a rotten playboy on Search for Tomorrow earlier) to save the day.
Ironically at that point in Edge storyline NBC had cancelled what might actually have been the best soap ever for family-oriented drama and suspense From These Roots in which Ann Flood had been the series star. P&G, sponsors of From These Roots, knew they had a winning actress and put her on Edge of Night as Nancy Pollack, independent female reporter who was destined to become widower Mike Karr's romantic interest and future wife.
Up to the mid-60's on Edge you always knew who the killers and evil-doers were. Vendig left the show as head writer and several were tried before Edge acquired the most brilliant writer ever, Edgar-award winner Henry Slesar who not only brought in fascinating characters and families but was an absolute genius at creating murder mysteries which would take 6 months to a year tgo unravel.
Producer Erwin Nicholson and writer Henry Slesar brought us complex mysteries and off-the-wall characters who'll never be forgotten. The politically active Whitney family, the Hilliar family ... and who had been on the show since the Vendig days, the Marceaus - all utilized in terrific plots which kept the audience glued to the screen during airtime. The last super plotter, Raven Alexander who worked her way through most of the males on the show before marrying Sky Whitney.
P&G made an egregious error in dumping Slesar and taking on a new head writer in an attempt to capture a younger audience. Edge had declined in ratings as CBS kept moving it earlier, first 3:30 and finally 2:30, then wanted the time slot because As the World Turns was going to expand from half and hour to a full hour. ABC offered to pick up the show and air it at 4:00 which would have been ideal. Except many local ABC affiliates preferred to air syndicated shows at that time which was more lucrative for them. So many Edge fans found the show time-delayed a day for a 10:00 a.m. airing. Then some affiliates determined delaying the show was too much trouble and dropped it from their schedule. Alas, the show reached its conclusion over two decades ago. But those of us who loved it during that magnificent 28-year run will always consider it the best ever!

Henry Sleasar was the best soap writer ever. The show became totally stupid once they fired him. Dumb mistake on PGP/ABC's part.

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

I used to watch many of these over the years, but Another World stands out to me as probably the best. Although I watched it from the beginning, my favorite years were during the days of Cass, Felicia, Wallingford, Ceceile, and Kathleen. I don't think I've laughed and cried so much as I did watching this particular ensemble go through their hilarious and sometimes sad antics. I saw Stephen Schnetzer (Cass) on an advertisement the other day and wondered why he never made it bigger than he did. His comedic timing, dashing good looks, and brilliant acting for me made him a perfect candidate for films as well as night time series work.

Dark Shadows of course was so much fun. Would run all the way home from school to catch in in the afternoons. My mohter and grandmother would be glued to the TV right along with me. My Dad would come home from work around that time and tease us about watching it. He would say "That old Barnabas is so misunderstood. He really is a good guy", and I'd get so perturbed.

Thanks for the memories on this thread.

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

Brookside. So bad it was brilliant. Now that was 25 years of entertainment. I was born in 1983 and it started 1982 but I was four when I started watching the goings on in Brookside Close, Croxteth Park, Liverpool, and I was captivated until the close was boarded up in 2003. I cried for what we were losing.

I'm from Liverpool by the way so maybe I'm biased but it was a highly exciting soap.

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

OK, you've listed all the soaps that have been cancelled over the years, but I wouldn't call all of them brilliant. There's only one soap on your list that was brilliant...SANTA BARBARA...snapping on the heels of brilliance during its initial years but faltering near the end were RYAN'S HOPE and THE EDGE OF NIGHT, but that's it.

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

From 1956 to 1981 The Edge of Night was consisstently brilliant. Unfortunately many soaps get off to an excellent start and then due to sponsor or network meddling in the name of "improving" ratings are destroyed. The Secret Storm in the 15-minute format it held from its inception until 1962 was an excellent, absorbing show when its main focus was on widower Peter Ames, his sister-in-law Pauline, and his children Susan, Jerry and Amy. In fact Roy Winsor its producer was a genius Winsor's love of Life in the 15-minute format centered on the conflict between sisters Vanessa and Meg and kept lunchtime viewers involved, then in 1958 the 30-minute format remained interesting and retained viewership until it jumped the shark in the early '60's. I've state before From These Roots was probably the BEST family oriented serial (even better than Ryan's Hope) was From These Roots - a brilliant concept which NBC annhilated story-wise after two years of greatness. The original first couple of years of Ryan's Hope were also excellent.

Soaps in the last few decades seem to think all they need is to show attractive youngsters undressed and making out. In 1961 actor Paul Savior who was a good-looking guy was shown quite frequently wearing pajama bottoms while talking to his serial wife Barbara. Many girls I knew watched Love of Life just to get a glimpse of Savior's pecs. So I suppose unwittingly Savior created today's current rage to see good looking guys stripped to the waist and making out with their girlfriends. May point in this paragraph is that today's soap writers place more emphasis on unbridled sexual activity than on story values. It is true that the last soap aired which was the ultimate in coolness was Santa Barbara - a great mix of whimsey and story telling.

Perhaps as indicated on another thread, soaps are dead. Certainly tv entertainment is coming to an end. What's with AVC canceling Pushing Daisies, an intelligently designed entertainment, to be a ble to offer viewers more cheap-to-produce reality shows?

Let's examine that cheap-to-produce statement. A large factor in the vdwindling story values of the soaps has been the 60-minute format. Why an hour? Rather than creatively using the time to entertain and tell good stories, the hour shows are excessively padded with uninteresting characters sho provide poorly conceived humor to detract from the main story lines. Or, as One Life to Live did in the past 6 weeks there were major crises for several different sets of characters ... and once again the writers have resorted to an inherited (?) multiple personality PLUS switched-baby opportunity (pace, Judith Light) for the current main storyline. Tell me truly wouldn't a doctor who had just delivered a living baby and taken the newborn to her office and walked out for a few minutes, realize that the dead baby in the wrapping when she returned was not the same tyke?

RIP, soap opera.

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

Of the eight soaps still on the air there is only one that is a half-hour long: "The Bold & the Beautiful." I'm sure the reason CBS didn't expand B&B to an hour was that it would cut into affiliates' local time: many of them run half-hour news shows at noon. CBS has two separate east-coast feeds of Y&R: one at 12 noon Eastern, the other at 12:30 pm, so that affiliates can run a half hour show at either noon or 1 pm. (I once worked at a CBS station.)

I thought NBC was nuts when it expanded "Another World" to 90 minutes in 1979. No doubt, it led to overworked actors and writers, and padding galore.

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

That's quite a list!! Many I haven't heard of, but the rest I have...TOTALLY agree with: Another World and Santa Barbara (my two favorites, and the best on TV as far as I'm concerned!!), Ryan's Hope (a close second), Loving & The City (third), Texas and Dark Shadows. I watched the new Dark Shadows though, with Ben Cross and Joanna Going from Another World. I remember vaguely watching with my mom: The Doctors, Somerset and maybe one or two others. Those were the days!!

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

Somerset was a spin-off of Another World, sharing characters, storylines, and the same network, Brooklyn Warehouse Studios, opening Logo (the spiraling circles), and announcer.

Another World had melodrama and tragic situations (like The Secret Storm).

Somerset was more violent and mysterious (like The Edge Of Night).

I don't believe that Somerset was cancelled because of it's low ratings.
I think it was cancelled because both Proctor & Gamble AND NBC wanted
Another World's brilliant head writer Harding LeMay to create a totally new soap (and unofficial spinoff of Another World) to replace Somerset. It was called Lovers & Friends, then came back re-titled For Richer, For Poorer. This "experiment" was not near as exciting nor spooky as Somerset. Even the new show(s) could not pull in the ratings that Somerset managed to carry in it's seven year run.

NBC (and P & G) almost killed Another World by expanding it to 90 minutes.
Ratings and popularity plummetted.

Then they created another spin-off called Texas. Very fine show, but we fans could not help but notice it's daytime rip-off of the Dallas media frenzy.

Many of the others on your list are great entertainments. And there's NOTHING wrong with that label. I wish a lot of these shows were back on the air, maybe then I would actually watch tv again.

In my day, I really enjoyed Dark Shadows, Another World, The Secret Storm, Love of Life, and The Edge of Night.

When soaps became more about sex than about good storytelling, my interest began to fade. I have nothing against seeing sexy performers involved in interesting love stories, but when it comes down just to looking at naked bodies? What's great about that? Doesn't take a lot of talent to get naked on camera.

"Who's drivin' the car, Ben?" Lucas Buck

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

Unfortunately we can now add GUIDING LIGHT to that list. It was the oldest running serial on television,
72 years. It got it's start on NBC radio back in the late 1930's. This Friday, Sept. 18th is the last air date for the show. It was a wonderful drama that I grew up watching most of my life. It will most definitely be missed.

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

One Life to Live is the best soap opera I've seen, with Days of Our Lives a very close second.
I LOVED those soaps when I was in junior high school. I'd race home to see them, and even record the beginnings since I was still in school.
I really loved discussing them with my friends then too.

Oh nostalgia. They bring back such terrific memories! I wish those days were nowadays sometimes.

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

I so agree with you tbell, my favorite current soap is DAYS OF OUR LIVES, with those writers, Days reminds me of Search For Tomorrow a little bit, even has some ppl in the cast that were former SFT stars of yesteryear like Victor Kiriakis, Kimberly Brady, Caroline Brady...

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

I'm sticking with soaps that had a limited run on daytime and prime time as compared to the four recent long-term cancelled classics (Guiding Light, As The World Turns, One Life To Live and All My Children):

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

I still believe The Edge of Night from its 1956 debut 'til the 1984 cancellation was the very best of the daytime soaps on TV. A close second would be The Secret Storm with the offbeat actions of the Ames family and Love of Life with compelling characters and interesting stories.

Of the cancelled soaps which had converted to the 60-minute format, I felt One Life to Live was absolutely the best - acting, cast, involved plots ... nothing but fun, thanks to Erika Slezak and the others.

What's the best soap of the 4 survivors in 2014? I'd have to vote for Days of Our Lives because of the writing ... which manages to involve ALL of the front burner major characters in whatever ludicrous action is going on and, like OLtL, is very well acted and produced. I'm not sure the beautiful cast members are a tribute to plastic surgery or botox, but the gals and guys are stunning. The Young & the Restless runs a close second despite the present executive producer's demonstrated penchant for destroying any soap she's controlling. Just look at what she and Brian Frons did to General Hospital over many years, killing off the major core families and making 3pm to 4pm on ABC a mob war for years. LOL

GH has improved under the guidance of Mr. Valentini and Mr. Carlivati, but too often they'll abandon a major plot development for several weeks and let other plots come to the forefront. They should take a page from the golden days of Irna Phillips with the 15-minute The Guiding Light as well as the 15-minute The Secret Storm and Love of Life which always were absorbing and well written. But that was 60 years ago and I was only 10 years old, so naive I thought these soaps were a fascinating glimpse into real life of adults. Ay, caramba, what a joke ... but I tuned in daily to see what would happen!

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

Most brilliant but canceled--I would put As the World Turns at the top, even though I loved Guiding Light, too.

Even though Search for Tomorrow and Love of Life and The Secret Storm and The Guiding Light all started a few years earlier, and The Edge of Night began the same day, ATWT topped them all. It became THE classic doctors-and-lawyers soap. You can see how The Guiding Light, although older, was revamped later to follow ATWT's lead, with Mike and Ed Bauer following in the tradition of Don and Bob Hughes. Another World was planned as a spin-off of ATWT, and Days of Our Lives and All My Children followed the ATWT template, too.

And even though hundreds of different characters passed through ATWT over the years, it maintained a strong core around the Hughes family (and to some extent, the Stewart family--and later core families like the Snyders) so that it had much more stability than Guiding Light, for example, where there were long periods where the Bauers were almost entirely absent from the show, or Another World, that wiped out it's original core family.

ATWT under the Dobsons and then under Doug Marland was particularly brilliant.

Re: The Most Brilliant but Canceled Soaps Ever

I haven't watched soaps in a minute I thought Days of Our Lives still came on. I remember Passions I watched that constantly. Passions was so different and yes it had some very crazy and weird story lines that didn't make sense but that is what made it brilliant and unique.